


Mirror Talk (Excerpt)

by PrepSchoolAda



Category: Original Work
Genre: F/F, Original Character(s), Original Character-centric, excerpt, preview? i guess?
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-29
Updated: 2020-12-08
Packaged: 2021-03-08 17:27:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,123
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27270415
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PrepSchoolAda/pseuds/PrepSchoolAda
Summary: A preview of this book I've been writing for about eight years now. It's about a pansexual ghost girl that falls in love with a human lesbian.
Relationships: Liana/Chloe
Comments: 2
Kudos: 5





	1. Prologue - The Giddy Ingenue

**Author's Note:**

> so... when I'm not writing Adanorth fanfiction I've been working on my own story. For about eight years now. Yeah, since I was 15, I've been writing this story on and off. 
> 
> Writing it feels like reaching into my insides and just... rummaging around. So it's a little harder for me to write than my Adanorth stuff! But I've been picking it back up recently, and I thought I'd post a little chapter here! Just to see what you guys think!
> 
> so this is the prologue, the story itself is told a little out of order. this scene is taken from well into the third act of the overall story. I chose to put it at the beginning because shit happens between this prologue and the end of the story and I wanted to assure everyone, "I've no interest in burying gays. Everyone will be happy in the end. But also no ending spoilers."
> 
> if you want me to post a little more, that's cool! if you want me to shut my damn mouth and go back to Adanorth stuff, also valid! I'm proofreading Part One right now before writing any more, so I've got like 15000 words I'm halfway happy with right now that I could share?
> 
> god I'm nervous. It's my baby. But you may Look TM! bye!

_10th February 2016_

Liana brought the foundation brush to her cheeks and tentatively applied a layer of stage makeup. She’d never properly learned how to use makeup herself; she’d always relied on Chloe to help her with anything related to her appearance. Chloe never complained, of course. She always had loved playing dress up, and Liana was practically her muse. The transformation process into Cosette was taking a very long time on this particular occasion, as Liana’s hands were shaking, and her insides were performing a joyful dance that was making her rather lightheaded.

Chloe, who had been leaning against a wall watching Liana with bright eyes and a cheeky smile, saw Liana struggling and chuckled to herself.

“Okay, Lia, let me do that before you stab yourself in the eye,” Chloe said, still laughing as she confidently walked over to Liana. Liana accepted defeat and laid down her tools with a faux-annoyed sigh.

Chloe spun Liana’s chair slightly to the right to face her. She carefully painted Liana’s lips and tickled her cheeks with powder, and almost all the while she was looking deeply into Liana’s eyes. They were the warmest shade of brown, like precious gemstones that could only be found in the deepest woods. Staring into them for so long while she worked transported her briefly back to when they were little girls, running through mud puddles to feed the horses and chasing the rivers downstream, hoping one day to catch up with them, and afterwards reading stories together until Liana fell asleep. It truly seemed like only yesterday.

Everything had changed since then, in every possible way. Despite everything, however, here they were.

“Okay, I’m done,” Chloe’s voice cracked as she spoke. She was usually so self-assured around Liana, but now that she was truly and physically with her, Liana was having all sorts of new effects on Chloe.

Liana was positively glowing, inside and out. And why wouldn’t she be? She was about to play Cosette from _Les Misérables_. This was her dream role, and she couldn’t wait to go out there and make it hers. She looked nothing like the Liana that Chloe knew, but all the same, she looked like she was exactly where she belonged. Chloe could feel her mouth stretching into a wide, proud smile.

“What are you grinning at, creeper?” said Liana playfully. She had a very deep speaking voice for a soprano, Chloe had always noticed it.

Chloe raised an eyebrow. “You. Take a look.”

Chloe turned Liana’s chair back around to face the vanity mirror, and both of them gazed into it, but each girl was looking at the other’s reflection, in utter disbelief that they were together at last.

“It’s happening,” Liana blurted out with glassy eyes. “It’s really happening.”

Chloe wrapped her arms around Liana’s shoulders and kissed the top of her head. Liana shrunk into Chloe’s embrace, closing her eyes.

“You’re beautiful,” Chloe whispered into Liana’s hair. Liana slowly stood up and faced Chloe. They stood so close, releasing shaky breaths.

“You’re beautiful too,” said Liana softly. “Inside and out.”

They slowly wrapped their arms around each other and held each other intimately. Chloe rested her head against Liana’s shoulder as Liana’s hands stroked Chloe’s dreadlocks. They weren’t used to being able to touch each other like this. They wanted to have each other completely memorised. They’d have become one right there and then if they could. As they stood blissfully intertwined, Liana could even forget for a moment that this wasn’t going to last.

The words ‘I love you’ crept onto the tip of Liana’s tongue, but never found their way out, as they were interrupted by a voice over the tannoy system.

“Cosette to the stage, please,” said the voice of Priscilla, the stage manager. “That’s Cosette to the stage.”

The girls pulled back, and Chloe squeezed Liana’s hands. “Your time to shine, babe.”

Liana took deep breaths, and as she did, the voice sounded again.

“You got this, Liana.”

Liana burst out laughing, in disbelief that Priscilla had risked straying from her tech script just to say that. Chloe joined in and pressed her forehead to Liana’s.

“See you later, okay?” said Liana, grinning as she moved away from Chloe.

Chloe shook her head with a smile. “See you right now, I’m watching from the wings.”

Liana rolled her eyes and sighed, but grinned as she did. She loved how… _much_ Chloe could be. There hadn’t been anyone as supportive as her in Liana’s life for a very long time. Ally had been an amazing friend, more than Liana could reasonably ask for, but… Chloe. _Chloe_ was here. The love of her life. It simply wasn’t the same.

They walked down the stairs to the wings, hands tangled together, making as little noise as possible. Sound carried in this building, as Briony reminded the cast as much as possible. Liana opened the door leading to the stage and her knees immediately started threatening to give way. By this point she knew Cosette like the back of her hand, but… she wasn’t ready to let Cosette go. She wasn’t ready to let Chloe go. She had one day with Chloe; she couldn’t spend a single second of it away from her. It was so much. She couldn’t do it.

Chloe sensed Liana’s anxiousness and wrapped an arm around her to stop her from collapsing.

“You can do this, Lia,” whispered Chloe, calmly. “I’ve wanted to see you live your dream for so long. And now I can. Please, please do it for me. Do it for _you_.”

Chloe squeezed Liana’s hand and let it go. With one last long look at Chloe, hoping to memorise the proud and joyful expression on her face, Liana turned away from her, grabbed her broom from the prop table and walked from the safety and security of the wings onto the stage.

The soft opening riff of Liana’s big solo number beckoned her onstage and soon, lights were illuminating her as she swept the stage and sang her song. The minute she opened her mouth, the nerves were gone and Cosette took over, just as Ally promised would happen. Despite getting so utterly lost in the character, she never stopped being aware of the beautiful pair of eyes watching her with admiration just a few feet away, nor could Liana stop thinking about how much she wanted to be in Chloe’s arms again. After all, Liana very rarely got to be in Chloe’s arms. The fact that Chloe had arms at all was very new.

She had to savour every last moment she could spend in them before it was too late.


	2. The House of Words

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i can't sleep, here's another chapter i've been working on. i guess it all started with this one. back before liana and chloe were written to be in love. back when i thought they were 'gal pals' lmao. this was always gonna be how they met. the leaky pipe story was always theirs
> 
> liana and chloe are the loudest god damn characters i've ever had in my head
> 
> i'd die for them. i hate them
> 
> chloe's name wasn't always chloe ooooooo

_15 th November 2005_

The chill of winter reddened Liana’s face as she turned the page of her book, with great difficulty as she was wearing a particularly thick pair of blue gloves. Her black anorak and pompom hat effectively shielded her from the cold. She held her yellowed paperback book with two hands with her beloved Snowberry tucked under her arm. Snowberry’s fur had lost its softness long ago, but she remained Liana’s constant companion. Liana told Snowberry all of her joys and hopes and fears, just so she could talk to _someone_ about them. She knew Snowberry would never answer her, but it was a much better option than talking to her mother. Though she wasn’t much of one, to the point where Liana internally called her ‘Susan’.

Susan had reprimanded her that morning for being ‘the weird kid’. This whole playground loner persona of Liana’s was all very embarrassing for Susan (though Liana was never sure why; Susan didn’t have many friends of her own to be embarrassed in front of). However, whether out of spite towards her mother’s thoughtless outbursts or out of fear of communicating with the other children, Liana was alone again that day and had no intention of changing that. She had her own little reading spot under the stairs that led to the back entrance of the school and she wasn’t about to share it with anyone. Nobody would bother her here, not that anyone bothered her at all. The regular bullies had grown tired of tormenting her as she had gradually become too boring to torture. Whenever they started on her, she simply waited for them to stop so she could get back to her damn book. It wasn’t much fun for them after a while.

In the absence of real friends, Liana often fantasised about what it would be like if Snowberry could talk back to her. Snowberry was the only friend that Liana was interested in making, but Susan probably wouldn’t see Liana’s beloved stuffed animal as a suitable guest to bring home for dinner. Susan could hardly tell her non-existent friends that Liana’s closest friend was a stuffed animal, could she?

Liana read her book in silence, savouring every word she could before the bell rang to signal the end of lunch break. All the while, she tried her best to ignore the steady dripping of water that was falling on the pages despite the clear absence of rain that day. Well, thank goodness this one wasn’t a library book.

*

It was awake. Or at least, it thought it was awake. It wasn’t sure how it knew what being awake was.

Where was it? It was in a very loud place. Children ran and screamed and kicked footballs back and forth, their words meshing together in an ugly cluster of words, too many conversations to follow and too many faces to memorise. It was overwhelming. It had to get out of there.

It wandered warily, looking for a place to go – a place to hide, perhaps. It floated through a football pitch that had hastily and inaccurately been painted on the flattest possible area of gravel the playground had to offer. It floated deeper into the strange new world and came upon a small number of shabby picnic tables in a corner by a grey, metal fence. The football pitch took up most of the grounds, so the picnic table kids that weren’t taking part in the match either due to lack of skill or a dislike of the sport looked very disgruntled, having drawn the short straw so to speak.

Even so, the picnic table kids were loud, and the kids playing football were even louder. It needed a quiet place. By the stars above, it was in desperate need of silence.

It ventured further away, the hustle and bustle of the playground lessening in volume as it did. However, it couldn’t bring itself to leave entirely. While it didn’t like all the noise, it didn’t want to be alone. It certainly wouldn’t be alone here. Everything was so new. It would be difficult to navigate alone. It didn’t want to go out into the world alone. Maybe it could talk to somebody here before it did. But who could it trust?

Just as that thought popped into its head, something different caught its eye. Something quiet, hidden away behind a set of stairs. It moved closer. A girl was under there. She was reading a book under a leaky pipe that kept dripping onto the pages. How odd that she hadn’t noticed that yet.

She was holding the strangest stuffed animal it had ever seen. It wondered if the stuffed animal was supposed to be an oddly shaped polar bear or a hippo that had mistakenly been coloured white. It got lost in this thought for a little while, not entirely sure how it knew what either animal was to begin with.

Still, this girl was the quietest thing it had come across. She looked somewhat peaceful, and it envied her for that. She had to be getting that peace and satisfaction from the book in her tiny hands. Perhaps if it could get a look at what she was reading, then it could be at peace too. Maybe this was how it could find silence.

It floated in front of her. The little girl had an intense look on her face; large brown eyes darted vertically across the pages. Nothing was going to break her concentration. Whatever she was reading, it must have been good. Unfortunately, there was no way it could see the pages from here. Reading this book seemed like more trouble than it was worth. Should it give up?

No, not yet. It had to get away from all this noise. It focused very, very hard on this girl. It had to see what she was seeing. It had to know the secret to quiet.

_I want to see the world as she does_ , it kept thinking to itself as it willed itself to be able to read that book of hers.

The focus paid off. It could see the book. It could see and hear everything this girl could, in fact, in her own head or otherwise. Everything was extremely loud and bombastic. It was all so much worse than the noise of the playground.

Facts about the girl were being poured into it that it wanted no knowledge of at all. So many voices were screaming at once, forcing everything about this girl into its mind. It was being told her every word, every habit, every action, and every heartache. Alarmingly, the girl hadn’t seemed to notice this was happening, and continued her reading session.

It never asked for this. It had to stop learning all this, but it couldn’t. The flow of information was colliding with its consciousness. How could it focus enough to listen? How could it retain any of this? Why would it even want to?

It was too much. It was being told _everything_ about a complete stranger. No. This had to stop. It had to.

It tried to block everything out. It tried to scream, but nothing came out. It had no voice. It couldn’t see. It couldn’t hear. There was nothing it could do.

Eventually, finally, the noise began to fade away. The Information flow was slowing down. The silence it had craved when it tried to see what that little girl did was within its grasp now.

It began to concentrate on its surroundings. As they came into focus, it realised something extraordinary; it was in the middle of a house of words.

More accurately, an estate of words. The world was made of yellowing parchment. There were paper trees in the paper garden, a paper house with a paper porch and paper smoke rising from the paper chimney. The house was missing a wall and was open for all to see, like a doll’s house. The furniture was built from green hardback books, and the entire house swayed gently in a breeze that it could see, but not feel.

It hoped the girl’s mind was always like this. It had grown very attached to the house of words already. Everything was much quieter here than it was in the playground, now that the flow of information had slowed down considerably. There was a tranquillity about this world that it wanted to be a part of.

It decided it wanted to stay there, but was that its choice to make? Was it okay to just… set up camp inside somebody’s imagined sanctuary? Perhaps it should make its intentions known to this girl.

It did what it had wanted to from the beginning and looked through the little girl’s eyes. The information flow was finally coherent enough to tell it that the girl’s name was Liana.

It knew it had to talk to her, but it was worried. Liana didn’t look like she wanted to be interrupted when she was reading. What would it say to her? What if Liana wanted it to leave? Where would it go if she asked it that? It barely knew how it managed to get in here, it hadn’t the faintest clue how to leave again. If it was kicked out, it would be all alone in this loud world, with loud people, for goodness knows how long.

First thing was first, though: Liana’s book was getting soaked by that dripping from above. She could hardly hope to preserve the book if it got ruined by that pipe.

“If you moved to the left, your book wouldn’t be getting so wet. You’re under a leaky pipe,” it said. To its relief, its own speaking voice was rather soft and could even be called comforting. Good; it didn’t want to scare Liana.

Liana looked up and saw that she was indeed reading under a leaky pipe. She heeded its advice without a second thought and shuffled to the left, holding Snowberry and her beloved book tightly as she went.

Liana was not fazed by this sudden voice. This was probably just her imagining about what it would be like if Snowberry could talk back to her again. She’d made up words and a voice for Snowy so often now that she could do it without thinking. Liana had never had an imaginary friend before. Maybe this was what that was supposed to feel like.

“Thanks,” said Liana, her voice deep and clear. Liana didn’t seem to care who among her classmates heard her talking to the voice in her head. It took note of this and considered its next words very carefully.

“Can I read with you?” it asked cautiously.

Liana’s face lit up, and she hugged Snowberry close to her chest. “Of course you can, Snowy!”

It was puzzled. Snowy? Oh, Snowberry. It realised with some dismay that Liana thought it was a figment of her imagination taking the form of her strange bear-hippo creature. Thanks to the earlier onslaught of information about Liana, it knew for sure now that Snowberry was supposed to be a bear, but it just didn’t look right. No way was that thing a bear. It thought to itself that Snowberry had to be related to hippos.

Liana laughed a musical giggle. It looked at her smiling face in confusion. She had heard the quip about Snowberry being descended from hippos? It didn’t know how to feel about Liana being able to hear its thoughts but felt it didn’t have much right to demand privacy now that it had learned almost everything there was to know about Liana.

“You’re funny,” said Liana happily, turning back to her book and continuing to read. She read internally, but it could still hear her. It, now a permanent resident of Liana’s little house of words, became blissfully immersed in Liana relaying a story about wizards until the ringing of the bell.

Its name was Snowy, and it was funny. It could live with that.


End file.
